The
Rehearsal
was a witty burlesque upon the heroic dramas of Davenant, Dryden, and others, written by George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, the Zimri of Dryden's 'Absalom and Achitophel,' 'that life of pleasure and that soul of whim,' who, after running through a fortune of £50,000 a year, died, says Pope, 'in the worst inn's worst room.' His
Rehearsal
, written in 1663-4, was first acted in 1671. In the last act the poet Bayes, who is showing and explaining a Rehearsal of his play to Smith and Johnson, introduces an Eclipse which, as he explains, being nothing else but an interposition, &c.
'Well, Sir, then what do I, but make the earth, sun, and moon, come out upon the stage, and dance the hey' ... 'Come, come out, eclipse, to the tune of Tom Tyler.'
Enter Luna. Luna: Orbis, O Orbis! Come to me, thou little rogue, Orbis!
Enter the Earth.
Orb.: Who calls Terra-firma pray?
...
Enter Sol, to the tune of Robin Hood, &c.
While they dance Bayes cries, mightily taken with his device,
'Now the Earth's before the Moon; now the Moon's before the Sun: there's the Eclipse again.'